


Stitches

by petersnotkingyet



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Blood, I really don't care if any of this is inaccurate so please don't tell me, Injury, Kent Parson has friends, Kent gets crosschecked in the face by a madeup Falconer, M/M, Protective Swoops, Team as Family, Whump, Worried Aces
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 19:52:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14527962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petersnotkingyet/pseuds/petersnotkingyet
Summary: Kent gets crosschecked, and Bitty remembers what it was like to think Jack would never love him back.





	Stitches

Kent hit the boards hard, but he stayed upright.  The Falconers crowding for the puck kept him pinned there.  Kent’s helmet had come loose, and his bare face was pressed against the glass.  He was trying to keep the puck, but there were so many men around him he could barely move.  Fans pounded their open palms against the glass front of him and jeered, but Bitty sat frozen.  Players losing their helmets always made him think of his own concussion, but it was more than that.  For a split second, something in Kent’s face changed, and Bitty would swear he’d been recognized.

Bitty barely saw Josie move before there was a flash of fear on Kent’s face and then pain.  He went down on the ice and didn’t come back up when the hoard of Aces closed in and pulled Josie off.  Eric lurched to his feet to look down at Kent.  He was motionless, facedown on the ice, but Bitty only had a second to stare, horrified, before the noise of the crowd drew his attention to the fight.

For an NHL star, Jeff Troy wasn’t a huge man.  He was 6’2 and built more like a basketball player than a leftwing.  Josie had at least three inches on him, but it didn’t seem to be doing him any good.  The refs weren’t even trying to intervene.  The Aces were notoriously protective of their captain, who was still prone on the ice with their goalie crouching over him and signaling to the bench.

Tater went to help Josie, but the Aces blocked him from intervening.  After several long seconds, Jack went to pull Troy off Josie.  As soon as Troy recognized who was touching him, he shouldered Jack in the gut, and they were both down on the ice.  That was finally enough to get the refs involved, and they managed to separate the two players after a few more hits.

The Aces medics had reached Kent while everyone else was distracted by the fight.  Peter Calum, the goalie, and one of the Aces defensemen had stayed with their captain, and the rest of the team was flocking to him now that the fight was over.  Bitty could see Kent’s legs finally move a little, but a stretcher was still being brought out.

With Calum and Benjamins helping, the medics got Kent onto the stretcher.  The arena was silent as he touched the cut on his head and looked confused by the blood.  Calum pulled his captain’s hand away from the injury, and the blood continued to drip, grotesquely bright against his white away jersey.  Troy watched him carefully as he and Josie off the ice.  Someone went in for Kent, and the game continued.

Josie was sent back to the locker room, and Troy took a spot on the bench.  Even once both teams were back to full strength, Eric couldn’t focus on the game.  Kent hadn’t reappeared.  The Samwell boys were still having fun, but Bitty felt sick even as he cheered for the Falconers.

When the Aces won in double overtime, Bitty barely felt his disappointment for Jack.  It was overridden by the relief that the game was over.  He still felt sick thinking about the look on Kent’s face.  Fans all around them were speculating about Kent’s injury, but they didn’t call him Kent.  The called him Parson, and Bitty could tell they didn’t care whether he was out for a week or a season.

Jack was a little reserved after the loss, but he was happy to see his former teammates.  Bitty leaned against him while the team talked to Jack and Tater in the hallway.  After several minutes, the group split, and Bitty walked with Jack out to his truck.

“You alright, bud?” Jack asked once they were alone in the cab.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Bitty said.  “Do you think Kent’s okay?”

Jack glanced over at him curiously, and Eric tried not to squirm under the scrutiny.  “I haven’t heard anything,” Jack finally said.  “I’m sure he’s fine though.”

“He didn’t look fine,” Bitty said.

“He might have a concussion,” Jack amended as he started to drive.  “And he’ll definitely need stitches.”

“Josie really went after him,” Bitty said.  Jack hummed in agreement.

The next morning, Bitty skimmed articles on the game while Jack slept in.  There were already several posted, but it took him twenty minutes to find the information he wanted.

_Aces captain Kent Parson will be out for a minimum of ten days following a third period injury in an away game against the Providence Falconers.  Falconers defenseman Joseph Robinson has received a one game suspension for the illegal crosscheck that lacerated Parson’s forehead, nose, and left cheek._

_“Considering how it looked, we got lucky,” head coach Dean Curtis said.  “Parser doesn’t have a concussion, but we’re playing it safe because he was unconscious for a little while.  We want to rest him and be sure he’s solid before the season really gets going.”_

_Although Curtis sounded calm, some of Parson’s teammates were more frazzled by the incident._

_“Yeah, it was a real scary moment there,” said Aces goalie Peter Calum.  “He came back to, though, and we got him off the ice.  They’ve got him all stitched up now, and recovery time is looking good.”_

“That really scared you last night, huh?” Jack said, startling Eric.

“It didn’t _scare_ me,” Bitty said, dropping his phone into his lap.  “I was just… worried.  He has twenty-eight stitches in his face.”

“They do face stitches close together.  It makes it scar less,” Jack said.  When Bitty didn’t respond, he said, “Bud… I’m just not understanding.  I thought you didn’t even like Kent.”

“I didn’t,” Eric said.  “I mean, I don’t.  But he was right in front of me, and he didn’t even see it coming.  He just looked tired and he couldn’t get away from Josie and then he just went down and-”

“Bits,” Jack interrupted.  “You know none of the guys on the team would ever hurt you or me, right?”

“Yeah,” Bitty said, fidgeting with his phone case.

“And you know that what happened with me and Kent isn’t going to happen to us, right?” Jack said.  “Kent was my friend and I cared about him, but we weren’t in love.”

“He was in love with you,” Bitty said, and Jack sighed.

“Yeah, he was,” he said.  “I understand that it’ll probably still be hard for him when we play each other, but he really does seem like he’s doing better now.  He’s got people who care about him in Vegas.”

“Like Jeff Troy,” Bitty said.  Jack winced at the memory and laughed a little.

“Like Jeff Troy,” Jack agreed.  “Why don’t you go back to sleep for a little bit while I go for a run?”

“I might,” Bitty said, settling back against the pillows.  Jack leaned over to kiss his cheek before climbing out of bed.

“I’ll be back soon, alright?” Jack said once he had pulled on running shorts and a tee shirt.

“Alright, Mr. Zimmermann,” Bitty said.  “Have a good run.”

He smiled at Jack as he closed the door, but he still picked up his phone to finish reading the article.  The article had led with a picture of Kent down on the ice, but there was a picture of him later that night further down the page.  Jeff Troy and Liam Benjamins—the defenseman who’d helped lift Kent—were the only players Bitty could recognize, but several Aces were crowded around their captain, who looked calm despite the bandages across his forehead and cheek.  Stitches were visible were the cut passed over the bridge of his nose, small and neat like Jack had said.

Something about the picture made Bitty feel better.  Kent was on his feet and looked poised, and the Aces looked concerned.  Satisfied that Kent Parson had his own team to worry over his wellbeing, Bitty closed the NHL app and let himself doze off.


End file.
